New assistant city manager could "double dip" into pension and salary

Cincinnati’s city manager, law and budget offices will see
major shakeups in the coming months, the city administration announced
Tuesday, and one of the new hires is a
former city retiree who might tap into his pension while
receiving a salary from the city.

Bill Moller is a city retiree who will be eligible to
“double dip” into his pension and a city salary ($147,000 a year) when the city rehires him in February
to fill an opening for assistant city manager, city spokesperson Meg
Olberding confirmed in an email to CityBeat. Whether he does is entirely up to the interim city manager, Olberding wrote.

The possibility could draw criticism from city officials looking to balance Cincinnati’s structurally imbalanced operating budget. Last year, City Council drew opposition for its decision to hire Streetcar Project Executive John Deatrick and allow him to double dip on his pension and a city salary.

Update: Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said on Twitter that City Council will discuss the personnel changes at Wednesday’s full council meeting, instead of a special session on Thursday as originally planned.

Moller will eventually replace Assistant City Manager
David Holmes, who helped oversee efforts for The Banks and 2012 World
Choir Games and filed to retire on April 1, Interim City Manager Scott
Stiles wrote in a memo to City Council and the mayor.

“At this point in time, Cincinnati needs not only someone
who is proficient in all aspects of municipal finance, but in the
aspects of the city of Cincinnati’s finances in particular. Mr. Moller
has that experience,” Stiles wrote, noting Moller’s budget and finance
experience in Cincinnati, Hamilton and Covington.

City Solicitor John Curp will also leave his current position to instead act as chief
counsel for the city’s two utilities, the Metropolitan Sewer District
and Water Works.

“The utility has been undergoing a merger of back office
functions to save ratepayers money, and also has been expanding services
and service areas to decrease costs,” Stiles wrote. “John (Curp) has the private sector experience to assist the utilities with a market-oriented approach, and is uniquely positioned to understand both the particulars of MSD and GCWW as well as the areas in which they can expand.”

The move should save ratepayers money by allowing both
utilities to rely on Curp instead of outside legal counsel when legal
issues arise, according to Stiles.

Although widely praised by city officials, Curp’s move is
unsurprising given the politics surrounding Mayor John Cranley’s
election. Curp offered legal guidance for the parking privatization plan
and streetcar project, both of which Cranley opposes.

Terrence Nestor, currently the city’s chief litigator, will replace Curp as city solicitor until a permanent appointment is made.

Stiles announced other changes as well:

• Markiea Carter, currently a development officer, will
move to the city manager’s office to act as assistant to the city
manager.

Stiles is currently filling as interim city
manager while the city conducts a nationwide search for a permanent
replacement to former City Manager Milton Dohoney. Stiles could apply
for the permanent role, but his application would need City Council
support to win out over other potential candidates.

The city expects the city manager search to last through
June, at which point further administrative changes could be expected if
the city hires a new permanent city manager.

But Medicaid funding increased by $1 billion

Despite strong backing from Republican Gov. John Kasich,
the Medicaid expansion didn’t make it into the final version of the
two-year state budget passed by the Republican-controlled General
Assembly on Thursday.

Col Owens, co-convener of the Southwest Ohio Medicaid
Expansion Coalition, calls the expansion’s failure a disappointment, but he
says he remains optimistic the expansion will be taken up in future
legislation.

Under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), the federal
government is asking states to expand their Medicaid programs to 138
percent of the federal poverty level, or an annual income of $32,499 for
a family of four.

States are given a powerful financial incentive for doing so: For the
first three years, the expansion is entirely paid for by the federal
government. Afterward, the federal commitment is dropped to 90
percent, where it will indefinitely remain.

The federal government on average pays about 57 percent of
Medicaid costs, while states pay for the rest. So the 90-percent match for the
expansion is a uniquely lucrative deal.

But Republican legislators say they’re skeptical the
federal government can afford such a large commitment to Medicaid, often
calling the size of the expansion unprecedented.

Owens claims there is a precedent for the Medicaid expansion: Medicaid. He says the federal government has historically upheld its commitment to Medicaid, which insures 2.2 million Ohioans. There’s no sign that will stop any time soon, according to Owens.

To support his claim, Owens cites scoring from the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan organization that
scores federal policy proposals to gauge their fiscal and economic
impact. In July 2012, the CBO found repealing Obamacare, which includes the
Medicaid expansion, would actually increase the federal deficit by $109 billion
over 10 years, which means the health reform law is an overall fiscal gain for the federal government.

At the same time, analysts have found the Medicaid expansion
would be fiscally beneficial for Ohio. Earlier this year, the Health Policy
Institute of Ohio released an analysis
that found the Medicaid expansion would insure nearly half a million
Ohioans and save the state about $1.8 billion in the next decade.

Instead of being concerned about fiscal problems,
Owens concludes opponents of the Medicaid expansion simply dislike the
president, Obamacare and Medicaid.

Michael Dittoe, spokesperson for Ohio House Republicans,
pushes back at that notion. He points out the state budget will increase
funding for Medicaid by $1 billion, allowing 231,000 more Ohioans to
enter the system.

“When people say that we’re not doing anything for
Medicaid, obviously that’s not true,” he says. “Certainly, we could have
gone down the road of not funding that particular provision.”

The increased funding is going to people who are already eligible
for Medicaid but, for whatever reason, aren’t currently enrolled. The
federal government expects the new enrollees to sign up as a result of
Obamacare raising awareness and education about health coverage.

In other words, the federal government already expects
Ohio to pay for these Medicaid enrollees. Failing to do so would have
likely violated the state’s Medicaid agreement with the federal government and,
as Dittoe acknowledges when asked, resulted in penalties.

Although the Medicaid expansion is out of the state
budget, there is a bill currently sitting in the House that would take
up the expansion. Dittoe says that bill will likely be looked at in the
early fall.

For legislators, that might be politically prudent: A poll
released June 14 by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati found
63 percent of Ohioans support the Medicaid expansion, with a margin of
error of 3.3 percent. The University of Cincinnati's Institute for
Policy Research conducted the poll for the Health Foundation between May
19 and June 2.

The $62 billion state budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 passed the Republican-controlled
General Assembly on Thursday. It’s expected Kasich will sign it into law
this weekend.

Ohio State Board of Education President Debe Terhar posted an image
of Adolf Hitler on Facebook that said, “Never forget what this tyrant
said: ‘To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.’ — Adolf Hitler.”
But the Cincinnati Republican, who was referencing President Barack
Obama’s gun control proposals, now insists she was not comparing Obama
to Hitler. It’s pretty obvious she was, though.

Cincinnati’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate
dropped to 6.7 percent in December, down from 6.9 percent in November.
The drop is largely attributed to a decrease in the civilian labor force,
which could imply less people are looking for work or seasonal changes
are having an impact. Whatever the case, the amount of people who are
employed and unemployed both dropped. Hamilton County’s seasonally
unadjusted unemployment rate dropped to 6.2 percent in December, down
from 6.4 percent in November, but that drop was also attributed to a declining labor
force or seasonal factors. Greater Cincinnati’s seasonally unadjusted
unemployment rate was unchanged from 6.4 percent, despite 2,600 less
people working. In comparison, Ohio’s seasonally unadjusted
rate was 6.6 percent in December, up from 6.5 percent in November, and
the U.S. rate was 7.6 percent, up from 7.4 percent.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, suggested the Dollar-for-Dollar
Deficit Reduction Act. The plan requires debt ceiling increases to be
matched by an equal amount of spending cuts. Increasing the debt ceiling
is essentially Congress agreeing to pay its bills. During the budget
process and while passing other legislation, Congress agrees to a
certain amount of spending. Increasing the debt ceiling just makes it
possible for the president to pay those bills, even if it means
surpassing a set debt level. If the debt ceiling isn't raised by May 18,
the United States will default on its debts, plunging the country into
depression. But the threat of destroying the U.S. economy has not
stopped Republicans from using the debt ceiling as a negotiation tool to
get the spending cuts they so badly want.

Public employees are avoiding changes to Ohio’s public pension system
by retiring before the changes kick in. The changes make it so any teacher who
retires before July 1 will get a 2 percent cost of living increase to
their pensions in 2015. Anyone who retires after July 1 will not get the
increase until 2018. After that, retirees will get a pension increase
every five years. Experts are also expecting a rush of retirees in 2015,
when age and years-of-service requirements for full benefits are set to
gradually rise.

A new report found Ohio’s graduation rate is still improving.
The U.S. Department of Education report found the state’s graduation
rate was 81.4 percent in the 2009-10 school year, higher than the
nation’s rate of 78.2 percent, and an increase from 78.7 percent rate in
the 2006-2007 school year.

A study found a link between hourly workers at Hamilton County’s Fernald Feed Materials Production Center and intestinal cancer.

The plan would also cut income taxes by 50 percent for businesses owners while undoing a 7-percent across-the-board income tax cut for all Ohioans.

Republicans say the tax cuts will spur the state's economy, but Democrats were quick to argue the tax cuts will exclude a majority of Ohioans, particularly low- and middle-income earners.

The small business tax cut was originally proposed by Gov. John Kasich alongside a 20-percent across-the-board tax cut for all Ohioans, but the Ohio House undid both suggestions in its own budget plan in favor of a 7-percent across-the-board income tax cut.

Meanwhile, the conservative push on social issues echoes priorities established in the Ohio House budget bill, which was passed on April 18 ("The Chastity Bunch," issue of April 24).

But the Ohio Senate plan comes with a new addition: It would give the director of the Ohio
Department of Health the power to close ambulatory surgical centers
without cause, which could be "a thinly veiled tool to close abortion clinics
and effectively outlaw abortion across the state," according to NARAL
Pro-Choice Ohio.

The other Ohio Senate measures are drawn from the Ohio House budget bill, including a rework of family services funding that prioritizes other programs over Planned Parenthood, leading to less funds for the controversial women's health program.

The change has been trumpeted by Republicans who claim it will allow more programs to get funding. But the cuts have been criticized by Planned Parenthood advocates, who say other programs already compete for family planning services funding; those programs are just dismissed as inferior under the current competitive distribution process.

The Ohio Senate budget plan would also shift a separate set of funds to crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which essentially act as the anti-abortion alternative to family planning institutions like Planned Parenthood.

Supporters of CPCs, including Denise Leipold of Right to Life of Northeast Ohio, praise them for promoting "chastity" and "abstinence."

But CPCs have been criticized by pro-choice groups for misleading women about false links between abortion, breast cancer, mental health problems and infertility. An "undercover investigation" from NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio found 47 percent of CPCs gave misleading information about abortions and mental health problems and 48 percent gave false information about abortions, breast cancer and infertility.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio criticized the measures in a statement.

"Just when you thought the budget couldn’t get any worse
for Ohio women, it does," said Kellie Copeland, executive director of
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, in a statement. "This budget attacks every choice a woman can
make about her reproductive health. If she wants to avoid an unplanned
pregnancy, her family planning provider may be defunded. If she gets
pregnant when she is unable to become a parent, the abortion clinic in
her community may be shuttered. If she chooses to become a parent and
needs assistance to provide for her child, funding may no longer be
available. Gov. Kasich can stop these attacks on women’s health
care. We need him to pledge to line-item veto these dangerous measures
when they reach his desk."

Just like the Ohio House budget plan, the Ohio Senate's plan also forgoes the Medicaid expansion. Kasich and Ohio Democrats have supported the expansion, but the Republican majority in the legislature has so far stood in opposition.

The expansion would use mostly federal funds from the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") to increase the eligibility cut-off for Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The first three years would be completely paid by the federal government. Afterward, federal funding would be phased down to 90 percent over the next decade, where it would remain.

A study from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found the expansion would insure nearly half a million Ohioans and save the state money in the next decade.

Despite staunch opposition in budget talks, Republicans have introduced a standalone bill that would expand and reform Medicaid, which Republicans say will let them take a more "holistic" approach to the health care program.

The Ohio Senate budget plan also pulled out controversial language that would have forced public universities and colleges to decide between $370 million in higher out-of-state tuition rates and providing out-of-state students with documents required for voting in Ohio.

If the budget plan is approved by the Ohio Senate, it will head to the Ohio House and Kasich for final approval.

Update (1:51 p.m.): This story was updated with comments from NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

Head of community group sends letter opposing parking privatization

One of Cincinnati’s largest neighborhoods and business
districts is adamantly against a proposed plan to lease the city’s
parking systems.

A Dec. 7 letter to the mayor from Clifton Town Meeting
President Peter Schneider calls the plan “baffling,” “short sighted” and
“counter-intuitive.”

The city administration wants to lease all Cincinnati
parking meters, garages and surface lots for 30 years in exchange for an
upfront payment of at least $40 million and a share of the profits.

The city wants to use $21 million of the upfront payment to help close a $34 million hole in the upcoming budget.

Schneider writes that the proposal is bad for business,
making it harder for customers to find cheap or free parking near retail
areas like Clifton’s Ludlow Avenue corridor.

He also worried that a private operator would ratchet up
the price for parking, making the facilities “unidirectional ATM’s (sic) benefiting a third party that provides minimal or no value to the
citizens.”

Schneider also complains that Cincinnatians have not been given details of the deal or the opportunity to weigh in on it.

“It is unconscionable that the City administration would
allow a similar plan (to the citizen-defeated red-light cameras)
affecting parking meters and services be railroaded through City Hall
without the appropriate sunshine and input of the populace,” he wrote.

He also compares the proposal to Hamilton County’s
mishandling of the stadium deals, claiming that a similar long-term
lease is unwise.

Schneider ends the letter by admitting that there are some
aspects of outsourcing that could be beneficial, such as private
management of surface lots or garages or maintenance, but the idea of
privatizing everything goes too far.

Long-term plan could swing City Council’s parking vote

City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. gave a presentation to City Council today that explained how Cincinnati could work to reduce its structural budget deficits. The presentation was presumably in response to
Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan, who said Monday that she wanted to see a
long-term deficit reduction plan before she could approve the city
manager’s proposal to lease parking assets to the Port of Greater
Cincinnati Development Authority.

Even with the parking plan’s one-time infusion of money (“Parking Stimulus,”
issue of Feb. 27), Cincinnati will need to make further changes to
balance budgets for the next three fiscal years. To help tame these
deficits, Dohoney says the city could reduce or eliminate lower-ranked
programs in the city’s Priority-Driven Budgeting Process, reduce
subsidies to health clinics that are getting more money from Obamacare,
semi-automate solid waste collection or introduce new or increased fees
for certain programs, among other changes.

But some council members said they were more concerned
about how the city will manage once it loses the parking plan’s one-time injection of funding after the 2016 fiscal year.

“I think this is a bit muddled,” Quinlivan said. “It doesn’t get to the systemic problem we have.”

Quinlivan, who has long argued for “rightsizing”
police and fire departments, says the city should draw down its public
safety spending to “sustainable” levels, but she says she would prefer
attritioning public safety forces over abrupt, short-term cuts. Dohoney
acknowledges attrition would help balance budgets, but he cautions
that even attrition “would have to be married” with a plan that reduces the public’s expectations for public safety services —
particularly if the city decides to not answer every 911 call by
dispatching officers, which is currently required.

Dohoney says City Council needs to be clearer with
its long-term budget policy. “If we’re going to make adjustments, I need
clear policy direction, and I do not feel that I have it,” he says.
“Give me a clear direction on where you want the police department to
be, and I can get it there.”

The city manager says the city will have to approve a tax
hike or cuts to government spending, which poses the possibility of
layoffs, if it’s serious about eliminating structural deficit problems.

For every 1,000 residents, Cincinnati has less cops than
only two comparable cities: Cleveland and St. Louis. The fire department
has higher numbers, with Cincinnati equal to Pittsburgh and above
other comparable cities. The high levels of cops and firefighters per
capita comes despite downsizing in the police and fire departments in the past five years.

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls says the city may have
drawn down its police force between 2000 and 2012, but the local police
department has also been reorganized in a way that actually puts more
cops out on patrol. Lea Eriksen, the city’s budget director, says street
strength has moved from 832 police officers out of 1,034 officers
available in 2002 to 864 out of 981 in 2012.

Between 2000 and 2012, the fire department was the only
city agency to see an increase in employment, while the city had slight
employment reductions overall. In the same time span, the General Fund increased by more than $30 million, and Cincinnati’s population fell by about 10 percent.

Metal detectors could come back
to City Hall, but local legislators can’t do much more regarding local
gun control. Still, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and other City Council
members will begin pushing for more federal regulations on guns starting
today. President Barack Obama is already beginning todrum up
support for more regulations on guns, including a ban on assault
weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. He also wants to close a
loophole that allows people to buy firearms at gun shows without
background checks. At the state level, a new bill loosening gun regulations in Ohio is facing criticism.
The bill will make it easier to store firearms in cars and allows them for
the first time in parking garages under the Ohio Statehouse and a nearby
office tower. Gov. John Kasich said he will sign the bill.

The University of Cincinnati islaunching
a fundraising effort for the renovation of Nippert Stadium. The project
could cost as much as $70 million. The university wants to offset as
much of the cost as possible to build premium seating, with the
possibility of 28 new luxury boxes and more than 1,400 premium seats
being added. Goals could change based on demand and fundraising efforts.

A Cincinnati-based company and its top executive have pleaded guilty to circumventing Ohio’s competitive bid process. The actions cost Ohio taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars,
according to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The company circumvented
the competitive process by submitting multiple bids on road jobs under
different names, creating the illusion of competition.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a possible candidate for the presidency in 2016, willheadline
a Hamilton County GOP event. He will be a featured speaker next month
at the Northeast Hamilton County Republican Club's annual pancake
breakfast.

The Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy failed to followits own compensation policies, resulting in improper over-payments of $2,325, according to Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost.

Top state officials will begin pushing and outliningschool safety efforts in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

State Impact Ohio has a fantastic infographicshowingthe growth of charter schools in Ohio. In the Cincinnati urban district, charter schools now host 6,642 students.

A new state policy will automatically refund businesses when they’ve overpaid their taxes. The first round of the policy will refund businesses in Ohio $13 million.

The animal takeover continues. Due to the effects of climate change, some animals are moving into cities.

On the bright side, animals can be pretty cute.Here is a dog flipping over its food, andhereare cats locked in deadly combat against a printer.

End of world today, state unemployment dips, fiscal cliff plan abandoned

Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped from 6.9 percent to 6.8 percent in November.
Gains were concentrated in trade, transportation, and
utilities, financial activities and educational and health services,
with losses in construction, leisure and hospitality, government,
professional and business services and information services. Overall,
the state’s non-agricultural wage and salary employment increased by
1,600.

But could the recovery last? U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is now ditching efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff,
a series of spending cuts and tax hikes set to kick in at the end of
the year. Boehner could not get Republicans to vote on a tax hike for
people making more than $1 million a year, which isn’t even enough to
make President Barack Obama’s demand of increased taxes on anyone making
more than $400,000. If the United States goes over the fiscal cliff, the
spending cuts and tax hikes will likely devastate the economy. CityBeat wrote about U.S. Congress’ inability to focus on jobs here.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished the lame-duck session by signing 42 bills into law.
The laws include loosened restrictions on gun control, an update to
Ohio’s education rating system and $4.4 million in appropriations. The
loosened gun control law in particular is getting criticized from
Democrats in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre. The law allows
guns in the Ohio Statehouse garage, loosens concealed carry rules and
changes the definition of an unloaded gun so gun owners can have loaded
clips in cars as long as they are stored separately from guns. CityBeat wrote about the need for more gun control in this week’s commentary.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters suggested arming
teachers to avoid school shootings, but a considerable amount of
research shows that doesn’t work. Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig says arming teachers is a bad idea:
“Certainly we can look at other options, but when you talk about arming
school teachers or a school administrator without the appropriate
training, and training is not just going to a target range and being
able to hit center mass. How do you deal with a crisis? We're talking
about a place with children.” Craig is now pushing crisis training as a
major initiative.

Cincinnati is getting six historic preservation tax credits
from the state government. As part of the ninth round of the program,
the Ohio Development Services Agency is giving the city credits for
parts of Main Street, parts of East 12th Street, parts of East McMillan
Street, Abington Flats, Eden Park Pump Station and Pendleton Apartments.

Restorations would subsidize car use for mayor, city manager, other directors

Just a few months after the city avoided laying off cops,
firefighters and other city employees, City Manager Milton Dohoney on
Sept. 15 proposed restoring $26,640 in vehicle allowances that would
subsidize car use for the city manager, the mayor and other
director-level positions in the city administration.

City spokesperson Meg Olberding told CityBeat that restoring the allowances is a matter of basic fairness and keeping both the city’s word and competitiveness.

Olberding says car allowances are typically part of
compensation packages offered in other cities that compete with
Cincinnati for recruitment. The allowances, she explains, were also
promised to city directors as part of their pay packages when they were
first hired for the job.

“Cutting it reneges on their original offer and part of
the pretense under which they took the job,” Olberding says, adding that
failing to restore the compensation promises could make future potential hires
reluctant to work in Cincinnati.

But given Cincinnati’s ongoing budget problems, some council members say the proposal is out of touch.

“Are you kidding me?” asked Councilman Chris Seelbach at
the Sept. 16 Budget and Finance Committee meeting. “I just question the
judgment of an administration that would make that kind of
recommendation given our current financial situation. I’m offended that
it would be even recommended.”

Even though City Council managed to avoid layoffs in this
year’s budget, Cincinnati’s operating budget remains structurally
unbalanced, which means the city will have to come up with new revenue
or cuts to balance the budget in upcoming years.

Seelbach told CityBeat he doesn’t agree with the competitiveness arguments.

“I’m more concerned with the garbage worker who’s making barely enough to get by and would love to get a quarter-on-the-hour raise, much less a $5,000 car allowance,” he says. “If someone wants to leave their position when they’re making $100,000-plus because we’re not going to give them a $5,000 car allowance, I’m convinced we can find someone just as capable, if not more capable, that would be thrilled with a $100,000-plus salary with no car allowance.”

Still, Olberding points out that city directors often need
to drive more than the typical worker, whether it’s to get to public
meetings, in case of an emergency or as a natural consequence of being on call 24/7. She says that justifies what she sees as a
small cost.

The restoration was tucked into a proposal
from the city manager that restores more than $6.7 million in previous cuts by
using revenue left over from the previous budget cycle. The car
allowance portion is about 0.3 percent of the total proposal and less
than one-hundredth of a percent of the city’s overall operating budget.

For some city officials, the issue gets to what they perceive
as a disconnect between private individuals and the government: Although thousands of
dollars might seem like a lot of money to the typical person, the
sum is usually worth much less than a penny on the dollar in city budget
terms.

But Seelbach says garbage collectors and other city workers who haven’t received a raise in years would be thrilled to split $22,000, even if the sum doesn’t mean much in total budget terms.

“It shows a lack of respect for the people who make this city work,” Seelbach says.

The proposal also comes shortly after a tense budget showdown and in the middle of an election year for City Council and the mayor’s office.

Dohoney repeatedly said throughout the past year that the
city would have to lay off 344 employees, including 189 cops and 80
firefighters, if it didn’t lease its parking meters to the Greater
Cincinnati Port Authority. The city ultimately avoided the layoffs
without the parking lease by making cuts in various areas, including the
city’s parks, and tapping into higher-than-expected revenues, but the city is still pursuing the lease to pay for economic development projects.

City Council will take up the restoration measures at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Sept. 24.

County Commissioner Todd Portune is proposing a 0.25 percent sales
tax hike to stabilize the stadium
fund and preserve the property tax rebate promised to voters in 1996.
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners will have to approve the hike
before it becomes law. It would raise the county sales tax from 6.5 percent to 6.75 percent.

Portune, the lone Democrat on the three-man board, says the county got to this point after years of
problems with the stadium fund’s solvency culminated into one of two
options: either the sales tax goes up or the property tax rebate is
rolled back. He claims the two options are the only way to keep the stadium fund
stable.

Portune says the 0.25-percent increase on the sales tax will hurt
low-income families less than rolling back the property tax rebate. He
reasoned the impact of the
property tax rollback would focus on Hamilton County residents,
including low-income families, while any hike in the sales tax is spread
out on anyone who spends money in Hamilton County, including visitors
from around the Tristate area. He also pointed out that essentials like food and medicine
are exempt from the sales tax, which gives some relief to anyone trying
to make ends meet.

On support from other commissioners, Portune says Board
President Greg Hartmann agreed either the rebate has to go or the sales
tax has to go up, but Hartmann could not be reached by CityBeat for further comment.
This story will be updated if comments become available.

Update (Nov. 29, 4:25 p.m.): Hartmann called CityBeat after this story was published. He says he has not made a final decision, but he echoed Portune's comments by saying the
“reality of the situation” demands choosing between a sales tax hike or property tax rollback. If the commissioners take the latter option, Hartmann says only a partial rollback will be necessary to draw enough funds. He also cautioned that any one-time sales and spending cuts will not be enough to stabilize the stadium fund in the long term.

Commissioner Chris Monzel says he would rather keep the
stadium fund balanced for one year with short-term cuts, including a cut
on further investments in The Banks development before raising taxes. After the
year is up, Monzel says commissioners could see if revenue from the new
Horseshoe Casino and a possible deal involving the University of
Cincinnati using Paul Brown Stadium would be enough to sustain the
stadium fund in the long term.

The property tax rebate and sales taxes are both generally
considered regressive, meaning they favor the wealthy more than the
poor. In simple terms, as income goes down, spending on goods and
services take bigger bites out of a person’s income. A sales tax makes
that disproportionate burden even larger.

One analysis from The Cincinnati Enquirerfound
the wealthy actually made more money from the property tax rebate than
they were taxed by the half-cent sales tax raise that was initially
meant to support the stadium fund.

For a previous story covering the stadium fund, Neil DeMause told CityBeat
the stadium fund’s problems stem from the county government making a
“terrible deal” with the Reds and Bengals. DeMause is a journalist who
has chronicled his 15-year investigation of stadium deals in his book “Field of Schemes.”